But, what about fats? Well, our body fat is the home for fats. Whatever fats not used for energy will be stored as fat. That’s the point of fat. This doesn’t mean fats make us fat, sure fats lead to direct fat gain, but this doesn’t mean weight gain. Fat vs weight gain is different. Fat gain can only lead to weight gain if you eat in a calorie surplus. Even if carbs to stored as fat, if you aren’t in a surplus…this fat will be used, so it doesn’t matter this is got stored as fat. Just stop filling up your glycogen levels unless you are always depleting then. Same with fats, just because they increase fat doesn’t mean they make us fat. INCREASED FAT VS INCREASED WEIGHT is different. If we eat fat we store fat. If we eat carbs we store carbs. If we store fat, that fat will only remain their and contribute to weight gain IF it’s not used for energy. If it’s used for energy then we are in a deficit unless we eat out way back to a surplus.
Tight hip flexors can also make it harder for your glutes to activate—since they're opposing muscle groups, when one is really tight the other becomes lengthened. When a muscle is more lengthened than it should be, it takes away some of its ability to contract. When your glutes are in this compromised position, it can cause other muscles to do more work than they should, making your workouts less efficient and sometimes, increasing your risk of injury. The sartorius originates at the ASIS and proceeds to traverse obliquely and laterally down the thigh to eventually insert at the anterior surface of the tibia, just inferomedial to the tibial tuberosity, as part of the pes anserinus. In addition to flexing the hip and knee, the sartorius aids in the abduction of the hip. It is innervated by the femoral nerve (i.e., the posterior division of L2 and L3).

It’s based on the principles of high intensity interval training — known as H.I.I.T. — which uses short bursts of strenuous exercise to make a big impact on the body. If moderate exercise — like a 20-minute jog — is good for your heart, lungs and metabolism, H.I.I.T. packs the benefits of that workout and more into a few minutes. It may sound too good to be true, but learning this exercise technique and adapting it to your life can mean saving hours at the gym.

How to do it: In general, your feet should be shoulder-width or slightly wider apart (if you’ve got a bigger frame go wider; if you’re smaller, go closer together), and your feet planted firmly on the floor, driving and emphasizing that heel drive. Stand tall. Depending on your preference or what’s available, hold a dumbbell in each hand (arms down at your sides); position yourself under a barbell with the bar against your traps for a back squat, and just over your chest for a front squat; hold a kettbell or dumbbell at your chest for goblet squats; wrap resistance bands under your feet and around your shoulders; or, use just your bodyweight to perform a basic squat.
These muscles are all involved in the action of flexing the hip which is required during squatting, running, and playing sports. Something important to take note of here is that the psoas muscle (part of the iliopsoas) actually starts at the spine and runs down to the hip. It is considered to play a role in spinal stabilization. Common complaints include a pinch/sharp/tight sensation when getting down into a squat, pain in the front of the hip/thigh during running, or sensation of tightness when sitting for long periods of time.
Heath suggests incorporating dropsets into your training routine by immediately decreasing the weight and repping out again to failure. “Dropsets overload the muscle with shorter rest periods and increasing volume which you need to grow,” says Heath. “That overload improves your body’s abilities to utilize more nutrients, natural growth hormone, and natural testosterone into those areas and makes the supplements you take more effective.” Heath’s favorite way to do dropsets is on a pin-loaded machine since it’s faster to switch weights.
We’ll define the “bigger muscle groups” as being chest, back, quads and hamstrings, and the “smaller muscle groups” as being biceps, triceps and maybe abs. Shoulders are really somewhere in the middle, though I tend to lean more toward the “smaller” guidelines. Calves, while technically small, are another muscle group that is somewhere in the middle, and I can really go either way depending on the needs of the person.
K. Aleisha Fetters, M.S., C.S.C.S., is a Chicago-based personal and online trainer. She has a graduate degree in health and science reporting from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and regularly contributes to Men's Health, Women's Health, USNews.com, TIME, and SHAPE. When she's not lifting something heavy, she's usually guzzling coffee and writing about the health benefits of doing so.

A: Let your symptoms be your guide. A slight sore throat or runny nose may require you to back off for a day or two but don’t confine yourself to your bed and assume the worst. However, you must also remember that prolonged, intense exercise can decrease immune function and make you more susceptible to bacterial and viral based sickness so it's equally as important to listen to your body and respond accordingly.

So much that they are not truly fasting during sleep anymore. People consume more energy than their body requires…don’t you think this will effect sleep? Sleep cycles? Sleep metabolism? Yes, it will. So people fast during the day and cause chaos for the body, mind, and soul. Why? Because you shouldn’t be fasting during the day, you should be organized with your calories and allow fasting to happen “naturally”.

In competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilders aspire to develop and maintain an aesthetically pleasing body and balanced physique.[16][17] In prejudging, competitors do a series of mandatory poses: the front lat spread, rear lat spread, front double biceps, back double biceps, side chest, side triceps, Most Muscular (men only), abdominals and thighs. Each competitor also performs a personal choregraphed routine to display their physique. A posedown is usually held at the end of a posing round, while judges are finishing their scoring. Bodybuilders usually spend a lot of time practising their posing in front of mirrors or under the guidance of their coach.

Working on gluteal muscle strength (buttock muscles) can be beneficial to reduce hip flexor tightness. Working the glute muscles pulls the hip into extension (the opposite of flexion which is what the hip flexor does) and improves muscle balance at the hip. Increasing the strength of your gluteal muscles can help calm the hip flexor down and reduce the feeling of “tightness”.

A sedentary lifestyle can lead to having weak and tight hip flexors as they are always in the shortened position. Tight hip flexors can lead to a limited range of motion, poor posture, lower back, and hip pain, and even injuries. These muscles need to get a workout when you are standing and doing movements such as raising your leg to climb stairs, run, or ride a bicycle.​ Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your hips to come into a bridge position. Lift your left leg off the ground and extend it in front of you, keeping your pelvis level. Inhale as you slowly lower your hips toward the ground. Exhale as you drive your right heel into the ground and lift your hips. Do 10-12 reps. Switch sides.
The other two, the medius and minimus, work together to aid your gluteus maximus in raising your leg to the side. Plus, those smaller glute muscles help rotate your thigh outwards when your leg is straight, and inwards when your hips are bent. Talk about a dream team! (To learn more about the workings of your glutes, check out The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises!)
Unfortunately, it’s hard to significantly increase levels through food alone. That’s where supplementation comes in. For instance, in one 12-week study of resistance-trained individuals, taking HMB in tandem with a high-intensity lifting routine significantly improved muscle strength and size compared to lifting alone. Plus, in the off-chance that you push yourself too hard, HMB helps prevent the effects of overtraining—including muscle loss.
Partial range of motions train partial ranges while full range train full range. Simple as that. They both help each other. Isometrics are great. I do them all the time. I add them in however I can. Holding it on the bottom. Holding it on the top. Or just in the middle. Constant tension vs time under tension are one in the same. When constant tension cannot be applied, it’s okay because one can just keep holding the weight so time can apply tension. Either way, Tension is caused until the weight is dropped. Will their be enough tension for growth? You tell me?

K. Aleisha Fetters, M.S., C.S.C.S., is a Chicago-based personal and online trainer. She has a graduate degree in health and science reporting from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and regularly contributes to Men's Health, Women's Health, USNews.com, TIME, and SHAPE. When she's not lifting something heavy, she's usually guzzling coffee and writing about the health benefits of doing so. The gluteus medius muscle originates on the outer surface of the ilium between the iliac crest and the posterior gluteal line above, and the anterior gluteal line below; the gluteus medius also originates from the gluteal aponeurosis that covers its outer surface. The fibers of the muscle converge into a strong flattened tendon that inserts on the lateral surface of the greater trochanter. More specifically, the muscle's tendon inserts into an oblique ridge that runs downward and forward on the lateral surface of the greater trochanter.
Actual bar speed has to do with tempo. If we rep a light away until it feels heavy, then we have altered the tempo. The muscle switches from short twitch to fast twitch. This takes time for the muscle to switch, so people lift heavy usually to expedite the fast twitch being used. BUT, going slow on PURPOSE, is not the same as actual bar speed. If you can deliberately slow down a weight, then it’s too light. SIMPLE AS THAT. Going slow is for heavy weights, because heavy weights don’t take long to lift. So one must be going slow because of the weight and not because they think time under tension is key. This means, lift more. How much more? I don’t know, but try a little more. If you can do a little more, then you have progressed.

How do I know if my weights are heavy enough? Check your form. This workout involves many repetitions of the same exercise and you will know you are using the correct weight if your form stays consistent between the first part of a repetition set and the end. For example, a row from plank should look the same on repetition number 10 as it does in repetition number two, even if the effort is much greater. If your form is wobbly by the end, drop down the weight amount until you’re able to find consistency. Don’t forget that working with weights is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Your body also provides resistance. Try our 9-Minute Strength Workout for a weight-free option.

A: Eat more frequently, drink less liquids while eating (they compete for stomach volume along with food), eat from larger plates and bowls, add lime or lemon juice to your water with meals (can help to increase production of hydrochloric acid that breaks down food), and consume more liquid calories (especially around the workout if appetite is suffering the rest of the day).
Those micro-tears that are such a key factor for muscle-building need rest to rebuild themselves and grow stronger. When do they do that? When you’re asleep! “You have to rest and feed your muscles between workouts or you will tear them down and they will become weaker,” says Olson. “Over time, you run the risk of over-training, which can result in injury, and possibly even more sleep troubles.”
^ Burd, Nicholas A.; Yang, Yifan; Moore, Daniel R.; Tang, Jason E.; Tarnopolsky, Mark A.; Phillips, Stuart M. (2012). "Greater stimulation of myofibrillar protein synthesis with ingestion of whey protein isolate v. Micellar casein at rest and after resistance exercise in elderly men". British Journal of Nutrition. 108 (6): 958–62. doi:10.1017/S0007114511006271. PMID 22289570. Stand tall with your hips square and bend your right knee, bringing your foot towards your bum. Grab the right foot with your right hand and actively pull the foot closer to your glutes. As you do this, send the right knee down towards the ground and keep both knees together. squeeze your butt to promote a posterior pelvic tilt and hold — then switch sides.
An upper/lower split can last you forever. A lot of massive, strong powerlifters stick with that throughout their entire lifting careers. However, if you’re older and/or have some trouble recovering, you may prefer a push/pull/legs split that has you training everything directly once per week. This is how most famous bodybuilders have trained in the past and many still do.
How do I know if my weights are heavy enough? Check your form. This workout involves many repetitions of the same exercise and you will know you are using the correct weight if your form stays consistent between the first part of a repetition set and the end. For example, a row from plank should look the same on repetition number 10 as it does in repetition number two, even if the effort is much greater. If your form is wobbly by the end, drop down the weight amount until you’re able to find consistency. Don’t forget that working with weights is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Your body also provides resistance. Try our 9-Minute Strength Workout for a weight-free option.

Running with a sway to one side or experiencing muscle spasms? If your gait is off, it could be a sign of weak glutes. “A stiff hip joint would usually cause a more severe or obvious altered gait. If there is hip stiffness/poor mobility in the hip joint, it will lead to abnormal movement in all of the hip stabilizer muscles, including the glutes, and eventually pain and weakness,” Bayes explains.

We’ll define the “bigger muscle groups” as being chest, back, quads and hamstrings, and the “smaller muscle groups” as being biceps, triceps and maybe abs. Shoulders are really somewhere in the middle, though I tend to lean more toward the “smaller” guidelines. Calves, while technically small, are another muscle group that is somewhere in the middle, and I can really go either way depending on the needs of the person.
SOURCES: Debbie Siebers, certified personal trainer; developer of fitness video/DVD programs. Sue Carver, physical therapist; owner, A World of Difference Therapy Services, Little Rock, Ark. WebMD Live Event transcript: "Staying Fit -- Rich Weil, MEd, CDE," Feb. 25, 2004. WebMD Live Event transcript: "Fall Into Fitness ­ Richard Weil, MEd, CDE," Sept. 2, 2003.
Several muscles cross the front of the hip and create hip flexion, pulling the thigh and trunk toward each other, but probably the most important is the iliopsoas. It is actually composed of two muscles, the iliacus and the psoas, which lie deep in the back of the abdomen. If you looked at the front of a body with the internal organs removed, you would see the psoas lying alongside the spine, attached to the sides of the lumbar vertebrae. The iliacus originates on the inner bowl of the pelvis. Both muscles cross the floor of the pelvis, emerge at the outer edges of the pubic bones, and finally insert on the inner upper femur (thighbone). Because the muscles are buried so deep, we can't see or touch them, so it's easy to understand why there is much confusion about their location and action.
(5) Fasting helps - sure, it helps, but one needs to understand why. Fasting is for when we sleep. When we sleep we are not eating. That is fasting. Fasting during the day is a religious practice and I’m not sure how “fasting” in nutrition got started, but it’s wack. I feel someone didn’t eat for awhile and noticed a change that they liked. Well, duh. Not eating is what helped you. Fasting takes away time to eat. Less time to eat means less food consumed. Less food consumed is less calories. Less calories should help enter into a deficit. It’s the deficit that is helping, fasting is just a way to get there. For instance: If I sleep at 9pm every night, but one night I had to do something until 11pm. Let’s say this night I didn’t have any food or water around me. That’s okay, but I usually sleep at 9pm which means my body is going to be awake for 2 more hours than usually. During these 2 hours I will be using energy that I’m not usually using because I would be sleeping. This energy used during these 2 hours is a “fast”. Why? Because I’m doing the same thing as if I was sleeping, but I’m awake. Being awake is going to use more energy. Or think about it this way: I wake up at 7am everyday, but one day I wake up at 9am. Those two hours I slept in was lost time for me to eat which means I was fasting. For someone that wants to eat less, they need to make less to eat or just eat less. Sleeping in creates less time. Now, I could regain those calories back by eating more during the day or staying up later and eating it back. Make sense?
When it comes to building muscle, your body only knows or cares about the tension, fatigue and damage an exercise is generating… not the type of equipment you were using when performing that exercise. It really couldn’t give the slightest crap about that. For this reason, ALL types of exercises and ALL types of equipment are capable of stimulating muscle growth.

Now, if you are somebody that is more of the “do-it-yourself” type, check out our self-paced online course, the Nerd Fitness Academy. The Academy has 20+ workouts for both bodyweight or weight training, a benchmark test to determine your starting workout, HD demonstrations of every movement, boss battles so you know when you to level up your routine, meal plans, a questing system, and supportive community.